Is The BBC Getting Serious About Climate Change With This Documentary?

The BBC has announced a "landmark" new documentary film exploring the global threat posed by climate change.

Climate Change: The Facts will be narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who is known for using his platform to warn of the growing dangers of global warming.

According to the BBC, the 60-minute documentary film "will deliver an unflinching exploration of what dangerous levels of climate change could mean for human populations, what is likely to happen if global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees, and if major reductions in CO2 emissions are not made in the next decade".

It will feature leading climate scientists unpacking the extreme weather conditions of recent years, which have led to wildfires and severe storms.

"In the 20 years since I first started talking about the impact of climate change on our world, conditions have changed far faster than I ever imagined," Attenborough said in a statement.

"It may sound frightening but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies. We're running out of time but there's still hope. I believe that if we better understand the threat we face, the more likely it is that we can avoid such a catastrophic future.”

Climate Change: The Facts will air on BBC One in the spring. The BBC says it will form part of its "Our Planet Matters" programming strand, which will "explore a wide variety of [environmental] issues to help inform audiences over the years ahead".

The new BBC One documentary arrives in the wake of the Global Youth Climate Change Strike, in which young people from 112 countries went on strike to demand adults take action against climate change.

The strike was inspired by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden, who in August 2018 organised a school strike against climate change in front of the Swedish Parliament. She has since been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.